Palermo

After Monreale, we headed back to Palermo. The weather was so nice here. First we sat outside the theater, and quickly sketched a section. The building was very intriguing again with it's mix of styles. The giant lion sculptures too were impressive not only in scale but also in detail. Other marble sculpture pieces add hidden elements to the whole space.












After that we visited the Cathedral of Palermo. This building too had a hodgepodge of different building styles, made apparent in the design. Roman, Byzantine, and Norman influence combined to make this a very interesting structure. The interior of this building leaves the viewer wanting, but that is alright the exterior more than makes up for it. The three-arched portico is a very interesting touch. The three small domes that line the side aisles of the church are exceptionally beautiful to me. The detail they have, seems so unnecessary and yet so appropriate as if without them the building would lose something. Upon sitting in the piazza in front of the Cathedral we were all jolted out of our drawing stupor by a large number of children chanting something. A peace protest of easily two or three hundred marched past us into the cathedral for mass. A few groups let me take pictures of them, they were all very nice.

















After visiting the Cathedral we walked around in a group for a little while, we discovered an older church. It's Byzantine roots reminded me of something you would find India. Lauren and Lauren goofed around a little with their cameras. After this we walked to a large garden, in which we climbed the tallest type of tree in Italy. That night Lauren Goetz and I went to an Italian arcade. We raced each other, and incidentally she's pretty damn good! It was very entertaining we were the oldest people in the place. It was a lot of fun.













The next day we walked to the Four Fountains. Each of the four corners of this intersection are slightly curved to create a circle. Each corner has three layers, the bottom representing one of the four seasons with a fountain, the middle an influential king of Sicily, and the top dedicated to a saint. After this we ventured to the market and ate spleen sandwiches. It was pretty freaking good, and for a 1.50 euro you can't beat it. After consuming my unusual sandwich, we bought some fresh fragoline (fresh baby strawberries) for a euro and walked around the market gawking at the vast quantities of fresh fish, the swordfish in particular was impressive. We wandered our way back to the hotel and spotted the post office, which had a very nice water feature out front. It was so nice outside that we waited for our bus in the sunlight, wearing nothing but short sleeves in February!